Fruit flies

[Deleted User]

We just discovered we seem to have a fruit fly problem in the shared house we live in. They are everywhere, and they breed faster than we can kill them. My concern is about Bombur. He has a tendency to pee outside his litter box and then sit in it for hours, so when I come home his belly and bum are covered in urine. It’s so bad that he has some pretty big mats on his belly and his bum fur has a permanent hair spray like feel. When I take him to the vets for his nail trimming in two weeks I’m having her cut the mats, as he flails when you go near them. My question is, is there any chance of fly strike from the fruit flies? also, any tips to keep my mop butt from laying in his own urine? ?

[Bam]

Fruit flies of the drosophilia species are actually vinegar flies. Those are the ones we normally call fruit flies. They seek out fruit because they want the acetic acid produced by fruit as it ripens. You can make traps with vinegar and water for them. They don’t lay eggs on flesh but rather on over-ripe fruit. I can’t find any mention of these flies being attracted to flesh or meat. They are a very well investigated species since they are widely used in scientific studies of various kinds.

I don’t know any good method that’d keep Bombur from lying in his own urine. You could put down puppy pee pads or, if he wants to chew and dig in the pee pads, put puppy pee pads under his blankets/rugs etc so the urine gets absorbed.

[Mikey]

Hah, my Bombur does the exact same thing! At our old apartment we had a horrible fruit fly porblem. Although they are annoying, they shouldnt harm your bunnies I do suggest vinegar traps. I used to have 5 to 6 spread outside of the buns’ pen to help out some.

[Author]

Messages